Daredevils

and married off. The couple was hidden from the bride's family until the marriage was consummated, making it too late to nullify the union. If the woman was no longer chased and potentially pregnant, her place in society was tarnished. Thankfully, over time, alliances and contracts gave way to courtships, which forever changed the honeymoon. By the eighteen hundreds, many women became trailblazers, selecting both their own groom and their honeymoon destination.

Theodosha Burr was one of those women. A prodigy and the apple of father Aaron Burr's eye. Theodosha met plenty of soldiers and commanding officers during the Revolutionary War. The family remained close with others who had helped fight against the British, including Joseph Brant, a celebrated Mohawk chief. Theodosha enjoyed the great outdoors, and during the social gathering in New York City during the late seventeen hundreds, Brandt offered to show her the yet unpamed portions of New York

State whenever she wanted to go. On February second of eighteen o one, at seventeen years of age, Theodosha married Joseph Alston, a wealthy Southerner. Instead of heading to Europe, a popular choice for rich newlyweds, the couple accepted Brandt's earlier offer and honeymoon at his home on the Grand River. The trek wasn't easy. The two arrived at companied by a caravan of pack horses and several staff members. When the couple returned, they told stories about the area's beauty,

especially the breathtaking site of Niagara Falls. Inspired other brides began to choose the location for their honeymoons. Elizabeth Patterson picked it for hers with Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother. Tourism boomed with the opening of the Erie Canal in eight making it possible for the middle class to enjoy the destination too. Once railroads began to carry passengers all over the country, newlyweds arrived at Niagara Falls every week.

In one my Niagara Falls honeymoon became the song of the year. The falls became the place to honeymoon in the United States. Marilyn Monroe starred in the nineteen fifty three film Niagara, further boosting its popularity. Tourists flocked to the area, taking in the local shops, fashionable hotels, and natural sites. Some ventured out to prospect point obserfy Asian Tower.

A boat tours behave another favorite attraction, departing and arriving on the American side, made of the mist took visitors close enough to feel the spray coming from the falls. The falls also provided power to local areas. Casinos flourished on the Canadian side. Musicians and theater troops found work there too, and as thrilling as superstars, honeymooners and photographers were, the falls attracted something more dare devils. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum.

Welcome to American Shadows. Niagara Falls attracted more dare devils than any other natural wonder in the world. The unforgiving and turbulent current, the sheer height and gusting wind brought adrenaline and fortune seekers looking to push the limits of their craft. Humans have always found dangerous stunts and acrobatic entertaining, and once one has been mastered, the next performer has to come up with a bigger, wilder, and riskier act.

With the explosion of entertainment choices over the years, audiences always demand something new, something grander, more elaborate, more death defying, and the daredevil's oblige. Some have been barn stormers, pilots who perform in aerial shows, wing walkers stepped from the cockpit and onto the wings in mid air, human cannonballs launched themselves from catapults and cannons, and of course, tightrope walkers balanced on thin ropes and wires over mountain passes, skyscrapers, and,

as you might have guessed, Niagara Falls. French born Charles Blondine always had a talent as an acrobat, making his stage debut when he turned five. He traveled to the US in eighteen fifty five, and after performing with an equestrian troop. Charles decided to try walking a tightrope across Niagara Falls. Given the public's morbid fascination with such feats,

he knew his performance would draw large crowds. After announcing his intention to cross the falls in eighteen fifty eight, people across the nation placed bets on whether he'd survive. He arrived at the falls in the winter, and after taking in the amount of snow and the biting cold winds, he chose to de lay the crossing until summer. On June thirtieth of eighteen fifty nine, he returned, joined by

over twenty five thousand spectators. A hemp rope one thousand, three hundred feet long and just two inches in diameter and an ashwood pole twenty six feet long were his only tools. Charles never used a net, believing that such preparations only made an accident more likely to happen. While his manager explained the logistics of walking a tight rope to the crowd, Charles, dressed in pink tights to match the colors of the slowly setting sun, took his first

steps on to the rope. A children hid behind their mother's skirts. The women stole glances around their parasols. Everyone held their breath as he moved forward, using the fifty pound pole to counterbalance himself on the thin rope. When he reached the halfway point, he stopped and abruptly sat down. Several people in the crowd fainted from the building's stress. Charles didn't appear nervous, though, He called out to the maid of the mist and dropped a line. Instead of

lowering himself on to the boat. He asked the captain if they happened to have any wine, and the captain secured a bottle and Charles hauled up the line. He drank the whole bottle, got to his feet, and, to the crowd surprise, broke out into a run. The center line sagged with the effort. That didn't slow him down, though. He continued to run until he reached the Canadian side, and once he stepped on solid land, a band struck up, Home,

Sweet Home. After twenty minute rest, Charles strapped a camera to his chest and stepped back to the rope to return to the American side. Two hundred feet out. He paused again, fixed his pole to the wire, set up the camera, and snapped a picture before resuming his walk. The return trip took him twenty three minutes. He announced to the American crowd that he had returned for an encore performance on July four. Mark Twain called him an

adventurous ass for his endeavor. Others insisted the performance was a hoax. Charles repeated the stunt on July four without a pole. This time he added feats like walking backward and laying down on the rope and turning over. On the return trip, he covered his head with a sack. He made several more crossings in the coming weeks, drawing even larger crowds. On July fifteen, President Millard Fillmore was in attendance when Charles added back flips, somersaults, and even

pushed a wheelbarrow across the rope. Two weeks later, he carried his manager across on his shoulders. The added weight snapped a few of the anchor ropes, but the pair made it across unharmed. In his next performance, he crossed in the dead of night with his arms and legs and shackles. By the end of his career, Charles Blondine had crossed Niagara Falls and Astounding three hundred times, not once did he consider a net or taking out life insurance.

To him, that was too much of a risk. While Charles may have been the most dramatic daredevil to cross Niagara Falls, he certainly wouldn't be the last. Maria Spelterini crossed in eighteen seventy six, making her the first woman to do so. While there's not much on record about her childhood, it's thought that her parents were circus performers in Italy. She began walking tightropes when she was just three years old. The spelled her nis toward Europe, and

Maria's solo performances made her a star. After the American Civil War, she moved her career to the United States. Into lie of eighteen seventy six, America celebrated its first hundred years as a country. People flocked to the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Niagara Falls festivities competed with Philadelphia's, and they knew they needed something to draw in the crowds.

Charles Blondine Zax would be tough to follow. A Word of Maria's talents on the tight rope had spread and they offered her the job. She was just twenty three years old. When she crossed on July eight, eighteen seventy six, the crowds cheered her, both from the American and Canadian sides. Having drawn plenty of spectators, she was hired for repeat performance four days later. For her second walk, she strapped

baskets of peaches to her feet. For her third performance, on July nineteenth, she wore a bag over her head, and after that she crossed with her feet and wrists and manacles. Maria made a fifth and final appearance crossing the falls on July before heading back to Phili Delphia to perform at the exhibition. She and Charles had set the stage for more daredevils to make the cross, each one trying to upstage their predecessors. Clifford Calverley came to

Niagara Falls in seven. While his walks weren't as elaborate or daring as Charles and Maria's, he made his mark by setting speed records, crossing over the falls ten minutes faster than anyone else. His fastest clocked in at just two minutes and thirty two seconds. Not to be outdone when it came to stunts, in later crossings, he skipped rope hung by one arm, hung by one foot and balanced on a chair. At twenty one years old, James E. Hardy became the youngest cross in the summer of eighteen

sixty one. Sixteen years later, in eight seven, Niagara Falls had another first. Stephen Pierre was a local and grew up watching Charles Blondein and the others crossed the falls. Unlike them, Stephen didn't learn tightrope walking as a child, but though he started at forty, he didn't let age get in the way. He practiced with ropes made of woven grape vines between two trees and a family orchard. From there he entertained locals by walking a tight rope

across main street. His big break came when he signed on as an assistant to professional tight rope walker Henry Bellini. Henry had come to the falls from Australia in eighteen seventy three. Instead of making a full crossing, his routine was to walk to the halfway point and dive into the water below. In eighteen eighty six, he jumped from the upper suspension bridge and the rescue boat hauled him out of the water, unconscious and with broken ribs. Henry

continued to instruct his young protege. The words spread that he had a bad temper during his lessons. One day, when Henry wasn't looking, Stephen used his mentors ropes. He hopped up on the line and easily skipped across to the cheering crowds, then began his trek back. When Henry heard the commotion and saw the crowds applauding, he flew into a rage. He began to cut the rope while Stephen was still out on it. He cut two of the three lines before onlookers stopped him, and Stephen made

it safely across. The locals ran Henriotte of town. After that, Stephen returned for repeat performance on June twenty second of eighteen eighty seven. Three days later, he became the fall's first fatality. A passer by discovered his body on the banks of the gorge below his cable. Some locals suggested he might have been drinking. Others thought he had met a more nefarious death at the hands of arrival. The

corner ruled it a suicide. It was commonly thought that all daredevils harbored a death wish, a theory, but Stephen's family strongly disagreed with. Regardless, the circumstances surrounding his death remained a mystery, which naturally added to the falls popularity. Like all forms of entertainment, if a stunt has been done enough times, the novelty wears off. After a while. Watching the tight rep walkers venture across the Falls lost,

some of brill spectators wanted something more. Death defying little Annie Edson had no interest in playing with dolls. Instead, the locals often recalled seeing her climbing trees and playing sports. They described her as having a lively imagination and an insatiable thirst for adventure stories. Annie's personality wasn't the social norm for girls in the eighteen thirties and forties, but

her parents never pressured her to be more feminine. The family owned a highly profitable flour mill, and she and her seven siblings lived a charmed life. Later, Annie completed higher education, received an honors degree, and became a teacher. She met one David Taylor, and the two soon wet, but tragedy struck twice. Their young son died in infancy, and soon afterward David was killed during the Civil War. Now on her own with no income, Annie returned to teaching,

often traveling the country to find steady work. Her love of dance inspired her to open a school in Bay City, Michigan. The business proved unsuccessful, but she didn't stop trying. She found work teaching music in Sue Sat Marie, San Antonio, and Mexico City. Along the way, she inadvertently found adventures of her own. Annie survived a house fire in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and an earthquake in South Carolina. She had been through a lot and was certainly down on her luck. In Texas,

robbers held up her stage coach. She refused to give them the money hidden in her dress, even when one of the men leveled a gun at her head. Defiantly, she told him to pull the trigger. I should rather be without her brains than her last dollars. Annie returned to Bay City for work, finding none and fast becoming desperate, and she settled near Saginaw Bay in to teach dance and etiquette to children. Things seemed to be turned around

until the lumber industry faltered once more. She found herself in financial straits. It was nineteen o one and newspapers were filled with stories about the Pan American Exposition, in Niagara Falls. Always the adventurous one, Annie began to plot at sixty three years old. She might not be able to walk a tight rope, but she could do something no one else ever had, go over the falls. She had a barrel custom made from white oak, but when complete it stood four and a half feet tall and

three ft wide. It was about as large as an icebox or a small coffin, depending on how you viewed Annie's plan. She arrived in late October and hired two assistants. High winds made the first attempt to treacherous for the boat. The conditions were better the next day, the twenty four. At around two o'clock that afternoon, Annie and her assistants departed from port. Day with the excited spectators cheering them on, Annie slid into the harness attached to the inside of

the barrel. The assistants packed in pillows and handed her a breathing apparatus that would supply about an hour's worth of air, though she didn't show it, and the thought of the barrel crashing, much less sinking to the bottom terrified her. Once inside, with a lid tightly shut, assistance lowered the barrel into the water. The barrel bobbed and swirled in the current, and the roar of the approaching

falls grew louder. Annie thought of the stagecoach robbers who held a gun to her head, though she couldn't see it. She now faced a different threat of death. On shore spectators gasped. The barrel, raced along, then lurched forward over the edge of the a hundred and sixty seven foot drop. The barrel tumbled downward and vanished. Strong undercurrents pulled it along the bottom, slamming it into rocks, causing cracks that let water seep in. Then the barrel shot upward to

the surface. The churn took hold, spinning it and ending it to the bottom again. Onlookers stood horrified. Annie and the barrel were gone. Minutes later, the men on a rescue boat spotted the barrel as it bobbed to the surface again. They quickly fished the barrel from the water. Annie popped out and bruised and nauseated, with her forehead bleeding from a large gash. She waved to the crowd. The Maid of the Mist blew its horn in celebration, and those packed on board to get a close up

of the event applauded and waved back. The newspapers printed the story, and Annie rose to fame. It wouldn't last, though, a dishonest manager stole her money. Women's rights had come a long way from honeymoons, but in the eighteen hundreds, financial institutions required women to have a man's approval. When asked by a reporter if she would consider a repeat performance, Annie replied that she had rather face a cannon than

go over the falls again. Annie's health suffered. She blamed her near blindness on the trip over the falls and the gash on her head. Near penniless once more, and regained some money with interviews, public appearances, a memoir, and a reenactment of her stunt for Silent Film. Though she managed to eke out a living, she passed away, broke and in relative obscurity on April n in Niagara County. Close friends and fans attended her funeral on May five.

That same day, a celebrity arrived in town in preparation for the film The Man from Beyond. He had been hired to swim across the rapids. The swim was dangerous, but the crew made sure to tether the star to safety lines. There had been plenty of deaths in the rapids before. In eighty three, Captain Matthew Webb, who had been the first person to swim the English Channel without assistance,

drowned while attempting to swim the Niagara Rapids. The locals weren't thrilled about the filming happening on the day of Annie's funeral, but one particular scene angered them the most. It called for a canoe with stunt Demi's to go over the falls. The Niagara Gazette reported on both the funeral and the movie shoot, criticizing the movie and those associated with it for filming, particularly the canoe scene on

the day of Annie's funeral. Locals commented that the film stars benefited with a much higher payout than Annie's real life plunge took in. Annie had not only been the first person to go over the falls and survive, but should also been the only woman to attempt the feat. The celebrity met plenty of resistance around town, and police and others continually reminded him that he couldn't and shouldn't

attempt to go over the falls. Irked by the continued reminders, he stated that if he decided to go over, he would and that he wouldn't get hurt. The townspeople found his attitude and comments a bit disrespectful. Annie was a local hero. They called her the Queen of the Mist. After filming ended that day, the Star seemingly realized how he had come across it. Said he went to the Oakwood Cemetery and visited a section dedicated to Niagara Falls

daredevils called Stunter's Rest. There he spent time in front of Annie's grave. You see, he had once been a dare devil himself before he turned to acting as a lucrative source of income. That celebrity was Harry Houdini. There's more to the story, and stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. When we think of dare devils, we think of those like Annie who risk life and limb for fame or fortune. There's another kind of daredevil, though, ones who don't do it for

the glory. They do it to save other people's lives. Such was the case on February eighteenth of nineteen fifty two. A five hundred and four foot tanker called the S. S. Pendle Pin was headed south in near white out conditions ten miles off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts. Rough seas accompanied the heavy snow. The northeaster was a record breaker, hammering New England with more than thirty inches of snow

in two days. As the last daylight faded from the sky, the Pendleton's crew did their best to keep from being tossed overboard and prevent the ship from veering off course. Just after dark, a loud crack broke over the sound of the wind waves and shouts. The ship listed sharply to one side before breaking into two. The captain and seven crewmen on the bow were left without power and began to drift south. The thirty two men on the stern had power, but knew they wouldn't stay afloat for long.

Unable to send an s O S to nearby ships, the best the men could do was hope someone would spot them despite the near zero visibility. Mid morning the following day, an s O S came in from another tanker, the Fort Mercer. They had also snapped in half and needed immediate assistance. The Chatham Lifeboat Station sent rescue teams in an airplane to aid in locating the ships some twenty miles off the coast. A while in search for the Mercer, the Coastguard picked up the Pendletons on their radar.

It took them a few minutes to realize they had two broken ships. Commanding Officer Daniel Webster Clough dispatched first Class Bernard Webber to the Pendletons. As afternoon turned to dusk, Webber assembled the makeshift crew. Most of the men were untested when it came to dangerous situations at sea, but they understood the risks. By all accounts, they were embarking on a sewer side mission. The thirty six ft lifeboat called the CG set out in the dark and the

blinding snow. Not long after leaving the harbor, they suffered damage. Now they were searching for a sinking ship in the dark, without a compass, and in the worst nor easter the coast had ever recorded. And even worse, the damage also took out their lights, so other ships couldn't see them either. The crew pushed onward, singing songs to steady their nerves

and pass the time in the sixty foot waves. Then out of the darkness came the shrieks and groans of twisting metal in front of them, A huge hunk of tanker rose from the water, then vanished into the foam before reappearing once more towering over the lifeboat. A Webber steered the lifeboat around while the men shone searchlights, illuminating two things, the ship's name, the USS Pendleton, and a man aboard waving Frank Lee. They couldn't believe anyone had survived.

He disappeared into the wreckage and returned, this time with a line of men. They tossed over one of the ship's ladders, but it couldn't reach the lifeboat. With no other choice, the men aboard the Pendleton climbed down one by one to take a leap, doing the best to time their jumps to the rough waves nor eastern winds, an ever shifting distance between ladder and boat. When they let go of the ladder, some dropped onto the lifeboat.

Those who fell into the sea were scooped out of the frigid water before the waves carried them off, and strong winds slammed the ladder into the tanker's side. While the men made their daring escape, Webber had a problem. His boat could only carry a dozen people, and they had twenty on board already, plus another twelve still aboard the Pendletons. If they left now, the remaining men would

be dead before he could return. He and his men decided that everyone would either live together or die together. The pendle Sin's cook, George Myers, stayed above the tanker to help study the ladder. When he was alone, he at last began his descent. The Pendleton groaned and began to sink. Myers jumped. A massive wave slammed into them, crushing Myers between the lifeboat and the Pendleton's Unable to retrieve his body, Webber steered the boat away from the

sinking ship. Webber guided the damaged lifeboat back to the pier entirely on instinct. A crowd of women and children awaited them. Many of them cried as they greeted their loved ones. Others cried when they learned the crew on the tanker's other half had been lost. The c Gred was restored towards former glory for a public ceremony with risk taker Bernard Webber and his wife Aboard American Shadows

as hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto researched by Ali Steed and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit grim and mild dot com. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.